Samsung is considered the big dog in most large markets, especially here in the US. The company dominates all others around it, meaning firms like HTC and LG are just picking up the crumbs. However, China is a very different smartphone market. It’s very price-focused and it looks like Samsung can’t stay on top there.

According to statistics for the second quarter of 2014, Xiaomi has overtaken by Samsung in China. The small brand makes cheap but powerful devices for purchase outside of a contract, exclusively for China. The low price of the hardware means that Xiaomi’s sales have risen from 5 percent of all sales last year to 14 percent this year.

Samsung, on the other hand, sold almost 1.8 million fewer devices than Xiaomi, bringing its market share to 12 percent. Seeing a giant beaten in a different country is definitely interesting. The market in the US is slowly shifting towards cheaper off-contract devices, but Samsung is still king of Android around these parts. But the mighty must fall someday.

Dima Aryeh is a Russian obsessed with all things tech. He does photography, is an avid phone modder (who uses an AT&T Galaxy Note II), a heavy gamer (both PC and 360), and an aspiring home mechanic. He is also an avid fan of music, especially power metal.

Lol, market flop? You having a laugh? Everyone’s so desperate to get one, they can’t even keep up with demand, its been universally praised as one of the best performing and best smartphones out, couldn’t be further from a market flop if they tried.

Mi4 is nice, no 4G though and even when 4G version comes it may not be compatible with all 4G bands around the world.

If Samsung is really that much more costly, then a mere 2% from the cheaper brand doesn’t seem to be that big a concern. I noticed that both Lenovo and Yulong are at the same percentage as Samsung. When we consider that Lenovo and Yulong are also both Chinese companies, It seems that Samsung is actually doing pretty good, being the only mentionable “foreigner” in the above graph. Even Apple falls in the “others” category.

I have been a loyal samsung Purchaser for years and until last week would have recommended them to anyone who asked me my thoughts on what to purchase. I have a Galaxy Tab 3 and was told by samsung after sending it in for repair that 1 hour in a car under the seat in a protective case with the windows slightly open was inproper storage and that the device must have sweat during that time causing it to fail. They told me it was void of warranty. The unit continued working fine for over 14 hours until the following morning when the unit was plugged in. Upon plugging the unit it to charge it shut down and only powers on with the charger plugged in. The unit still works while plugged in but according to samsung repair the unit is “unrepairable” so all future purchasers of Samsung product i recommend LG, APPLE, HTC.. well anything but samsung.

It was bound to happen soon or later especially when you can get same spec’d smartphones for far cheaper then Samsung’s Galaxy and Note lines. I think that Xiaomi makes great smartphones and just wish that Hugo and co can bring them to the states so that we can get a taste for ourselves.